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New York premium cars over pedestrians and cyclists

The cars they will continue to be the kings of new york, world epicenter of coronavirus, even as his movement has fallen 80% in the city since the measures of social distancing and closing of non-essential businesses took effect. On Friday, two days after the city council presented a plan that raises redestinar even temporarily while the crisis drags on 120 kilometers of streets in the five neighborhoods to gain space for pedestrians and cyclists, the Police Department and the Transportation Department took a jug of cold water to the proposal, to which the Progressive Mayor Bill de Blasio. And the frustration grows among the defenders and promoters of the plan.

“It can not boast of being the best city in the world without do what Barcelona O Milan”, Denounces in a telephone interview Danny Harris, director of the group Transportation Alternatives. And the same criticism was launched on Friday at the digital meeting of the municipal transport committee Corey Johnson, the president of the council and one of the promoters of the measure. “New York is unique but I don’t accept that other cities in the world can overcome challenges that we don’t. We should be leading”.

“Failure to innovate”

Mayor De Blasio launched at the end of March a pilot program closing something less than 2.5 kilometers, but what aborted less than two weeks later due to lack of use (largely attributed to bad weather) and alleging personnel problems to guarantee the security. Now he insists that the expanded plan, which would dedicate at least one lane in 170 kilometers to cars (and in some cases entire streets), “does not fit the reality of the city in terms of safety,” the argument repeated by his police and transport officials, concerned about the impact on the emergency vehicle movement or those who are taking care of deliveries. For Johnson, on the other hand, it is only “a government failure to innovate”.

He 80% of public space in New York is dedicated to cars. Gaining ground for them and for their parking has caused in the last century the narrowing of sidewalks. And these are now shown inadequate to keep two meters of distance that are recommended among those who go out for a walk or exercise, allowed in the city, and whose numbers are expected to skyrocket as temperatures improve.

“Climate denial”

Reinforce space and security for bikes it also feels necessary now that subway trips, 6.5 million a day before the crisis, have been reduced more than 90%, along with the use of bicycles has risen more than 50% according to data from Transportation Alternatives and cars, even if they are less, have skyrocketed his speed on the roads.

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“In the moments of crisis there is opportunity and the immediate is give the streets to the people“Says Harris, who denounces De Blasio. “You cannot be a mayor who claims to be an environmentalist and still believes in cars as the main means of getting around,” he questions, even ascribing to the first mayor “a form of climate denialism“.

“The New Yorkers don’t have wallets or lungs to endure more decades of an addiction to cars that has slowed growth “, also assures Harris, who says that”New York can be Wuhan or Milan. In the first steps of reopening in the Chinese city, the highways were filled and the air quality recovered during confinement evaporated immediately. In Milan, meanwhile, have been developed concrete and ambitious plans “.

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